The present invention is directed to a mounting rail, particularly for use in the building construction field.
In the building construction field a variety of installation arrangements are used in the electrical and plumbing trades, as well as in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning trades. To afford high flexibility, for example, when laying or installing cables, pipes and the like, such installation arrangements are not made directly to a base material such as a wall, ceiling or the floor. Instead, mounting rails, for suitably fastening and supporting the cables, pipes and the like, are mounted first to the base material. The use of mounting rails permits attachment locations for cables, pipes and the like which can be shifted quickly and easily, as required, without having to prepare new boreholes for anchoring the fastening elements. The fastening elements can be shifted very simply along the mounting rails and installed at the desired location. Further, mounting rails are used for other purposes, for example, for suspending a false ceiling to provide flexibility when installing lighting fixtures and the like. Mounting rails are used wherever great flexibility in the arrangement of fastening locations is desirable.
Mounting rails are known in the state of the art and are formed of rectangular or square cross-sections and are shaped on all four sides with dovetail-shaped recesses. In this way, fastening elements with attachment parts corresponding to the dovetail-shaped recesses are formed on all four external sides. Mounting rails with an approximately C-shaped cross section are also known. Such mounting rails are open on one side forming a slot and have a closed rear side secured to at base material or suspended from the base material. The fastening elements are inserted into a side wall or at the end into the open slot and mounted in the rail, for example, by twisting the attachment part. Some of these known C-shaped rails have inwardly directed toothed surfaces along the edges of the open slot. Such toothed surfaces interact with corresponding toothed surfaces on the attachment part of a fastening element and secure the attachment part against inadvertent shifting on the mounting rail.
These known mounting rails have advantages for the intended applications. For suspended applications, C-shaped rails are preferred, since they permit simple installation of the fastening elements for which attachment parts can be designed relatively simply. The suspended attachment of the fastening elements is effected easily, and the fastening elements in mounting rails with internal toothed surfaces can be shifted without great effort for releasing and repositioning the fastening elements. Mounting rails, with recesses shaped in a dovetailed fashion afford the possibility of attachments to the outside surfaces of the rail and are very suitable for rail arrangements where several rails are connected together, for example, to produce a frame.